Three Cardinals earn LHC volleyball honors

Three players on the volleyball court for Newton High School probably handled the direction of the ball more than anyone else on the Cardinal team in 2016 have received Little Hawkeye Conference honors.

Seniors Megan Pressgrove, Taylor Shipley and Ryanne Rausch were leaders for the Cardinals in kills, set assists and digs.

Little Hawkeye Conference champion Pella lost to Dubuque Wahlert, 25-18, 25-16, 25-13 in the Class 4A state championship match Friday in Cedar Rapids. The Lady Dutch (38-4) went undefeated, 11-0, in conference play and finished ranked No. 1 in the final 4A poll.

Newton (11-20) was 2-9 in LHC action, finishing seventh. Norwalk, which was ranked No. 11 in the 4A final poll, was second at 8-3 followed by Dallas Center-Grimes, Indianola and Pella Christian at 6-5. Oskaloosa went 5-6 in conference matches and Grinnell was 0-11.

Pressgrove was selected to the All-Little Hawkeye Conference first team. Pressgrove has received LHC honors four consecutive years as she has been a starter for the Cardinals since her freshman season. She earned first-team honors as a freshman and second-team honors the past two seasons.

Shipley, a 5-foot-8 inch setter and outside hitter, and Rausch, a 5-foot-5 inch libero, claimed Little Hawkeye Conference honorable mention honors. Rausch set a new Newton high record for digs in a season and Shipley tied a school mark in season serve efficiency.

Newton as a team set new school marks in digs, 1,266, and serve percentage in a season, 96 percent. The old records were 651 for digs in 2014 and 93.2 percent for team serve percentage in 2012.

Pressgrove was a 6-foot setter and outside hitter for Newton. She led the team with 325 kills overall for the season. Pressgrove was fourth in kills, 143, in conference play among LHC hitters. She went 218-of-227 at the service line with 15 ace serves. Her serving efficiency was 96 percent.

Pressgrove led the Cardinals with nine solo blocks at the net and had 29 block assists. She also had 176 digs for the season.

Shipley and Pressgrove shared the setting duties for Newton. Shipley led the team with 288 set assists, and Pressgrove had 223. They were ninth and 10th in the LHC with assists in conference play as Shipley had 140, which was 4.52 assists per set, and Pressgrove had 98, which was 3.50 assists per set.

Shipley’s serve efficiency for the season was .985, which tied Courtney Elliott’s NHS record set in 2000. It ranked fifth in 4A overall.

Shipley was second in the conference with a .988 serve efficiency in LHC matches.

For the season, Shipley sent 194-of-197 at the service line. She had 10 ace serves on the season. She earned LHC honorable mention for the second season in a row.

Shipley was second on the team in kills with 222 for the season. She had three solo blocks and 21 block assists. Shipley was second on the team in digs with 236.

Rausch’s 441 digs this season set a new NHS record, surpassing 326 by Natalie McCormick in 2008. Her season total ranked 10th in Class 4A and was 6.04 digs per set. She was fourth in the conference with 172 during LHC matches, but her 6.14 dig per set was second in the conference.

Rausch had 19 kills on the season. She went 123-of-133 serving with 16 ace serves, which was second on the team.

Little Hawkeye Conference

2016 All-Conference

Volleyball Selections

First Team

Emily Holterhaus, Pella

Gabby Ridgeway, Norwalk

Bekah Horstman, Pella Christian

Kiki Pingel, Pella

Grace Judd, Dallas Center-Grimes

Megan Pressgrove, Newton

Leah Van Maanen, Oskaloosa

Regan Bishop, Indianola

Clare Anderson, Norwalk

Second Team

Natalie Clayberg, Pella

Jenna Murphy, Pella

Riley Harris, Norwalk

Ally Ferguson, Dallas Center-Grimes

Tatum Jorgensen, Dallas Center-Grimes

Mady Zula, Pella Christian

Madie Mealey, Indianola

Alexis Westercamp, Oskaloosa

Emilee Hulsing, Grinnell

Honorable Mention: Newton-Taylor Shipley, Ryanne Rausch; Pella-Kiara Bradley, Katie Vander Molen; Norwalk-Abby Tuneder, Anna Laire; Dallas Center-Grimes-Haley Greiman, Halle Rosenboom; Pella Christian-Cailey Terpstra, Hanna Vos; Indianola-Maddie Post, Mary McGinnis; Oskaloosa-Josie Bunnell, Cara Roquet; Grinnell-Kamryn Juni, Madeline Wilkins.

Contact Jocelyn Sheets at
641-792-3121 ext. 6535
or jsheets@newtondailynews.com